The plastic came down from the lockers in the visitors’ clubhouse at Metro Bank Park after a brief but spirited champagne celebration, and things were sort of back to normal.

On top of the usual postgame routine, the Trenton Thunder players and staff, many in their Eastern League championship T-shirts, took in the moment as the dozens of team staffers who had made the trip to Harrisburg waited outside to laud their newly-crowned champs.

Undoubtedly, the clubhouse was a forum for much reflection, while the Eastern League perpetual trophy made its way around the room as the centerpiece for photo after photo. As is always the case, whether in the minors or the majors, the group won’t be the same next year, and it was in constant transition this summer.

Of the 13 players who appeared in Thursday night’s clincher, just seven played the majority of their games over the course of the season as members of the Trenton Thunder. Both Trenton players who had a hand in the final out – pitcher Brandon Pinder and outfielder Mason Williams – spent more than half their games in Single-A Tampa.

Gary Sanchez, Ben Gamel and Ali Castillo, who ended up winning Eastern League postseason MVP honors, were also part of the in-season infusion of talent from the Yankees’ Florida State League team.

When Williams and catcher Sanchez were called up from Tampa in August, Trenton became the place to be to see the top future Yankees, at least as far as the Baseball America folks judge it.

Williams, outfielder Slade Heathcott, Sanchez and outfielder Tyler Austin, the top four Yankee prospects on the publication’s list last offseason, were all Thunder players at some point during the season, with all except Heathcott ending the season with the team.

Heathcott last played on Aug. 10, missing the last month due to a knee injury.

Sanchez got off to a better start at the plate than did Williams, who also brought speed on the basepaths and in the outfield to back up his top-prospect billing. But Williams warmed as he got used to Double-A, going 11 for 72 (.153) in the postseason before hitting .240 (6 for 25) in the postseason. He, like Austin, have helped Yankee farm clubs win two championships in three years, first with short-season Single-A Staten Island in 2011.

“I wouldn’t say easier, but I felt like I’ve been getting a little more comfortable here, adjusting to the style of play here,” Williams said.

On the idea of taking more steps toward cracking the big club, both Williams and Austin were modest.

“Right now, I have a lot to work on before I play in Yankee Stadium one day,” Austin said after Thursday’s game. “I try to think about what’s at hand, and that was a championship series here tonight.”

In the more immediate future, there’s the intrigue of whether Trenton’s contribution to the Yankees’ 40-man roster, pitcher Nik Turley and outfielder Ramon Flores, will get the call to join the big club’s playoff chase.

As of last night, the Yankees had 34 players on the active roster, six short of the September maximum.

“I don’t want to say I’m expecting anything,” Turley said.
“I guess anything is possible. That’s why they put me on the roster, so they’d be able to send me up, but I’m not going to get my hopes up for any reason. If it happens, that would be awesome.”

The shuttle to and from Tampa and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre may have been busy for the Thunder this season, but one spot has remained a constant not just this summer but the previous six as well.

Whether change will come to the managerial spot for the first time since after the 2006 season, however, remains to be seen. Not that it needs to, but in the turnover-heavy world of minor-league ball, the longer Tony Franklin’s tenure goes, the more anomalous it becomes.

“I’m very pleased that they have kind of adopted me as their resident manager,” Franklin said with a smile. “I’m very, very comfortable here and it’s been very easy for me to work in the city of Trenton.”

Franklin, who long ago became the Thunder’s winningest and longest-serving manager in the team’s 20-season history, who has guided the team to all three of its EL titles, also made some history Thursday night.

Since Minor League Baseball reorganized from the Class A, B, C and D designations of old to the familiar multi-A levels of today in 1963, no manager had won three Eastern League titles until Franklin did so Thursday night.

“I’ve had some very good players here in the seven years I’ve been here,” Franklin said.
“They’ve had the ability to produce some championships. How much I do, I don’t know, but I do know my job is to help them get better.”

The list of EL title-winning managers includes such future major league skippers as Earl Weaver, Joe Morgan, Bobby Cox, Buck Showalter and Jim Tracy, but none of them either hung around long enough or had as many teams good enough to win as Franklin has.

“I just enjoy watching young guys play and get better and end up at the major-league level with 15, 20 years of great Major League Baseball,” Franklin said.
“That’s what it’s all about and it’s very satisfying and rewarding to me that they can start from literally nothing and end up as superstars at the major-league level.”

Franklin, 63, said his passion for the game is as strong as ever.

“I look forward to spring training each and every year,” Franklin said. “I can’t wait. I’m like a kid. Spring training is getting near, and (my wife) will tell me, she says ‘You’re already gone.’ She’ll tell me that in January sometimes.”

Of course, no one, not even Connie Mack, manages forever. While Franklin didn’t give an indication either way whether there would be an eighth season with him at the helm in Trenton, he knows change at some point will come.

“I hope I can continue to be a part of it for a number of years,” Franklin said. “When I leave, and at some point I’m going to leave, and I don’t know when that is, but when I leave, I’ll have as fond memories as anyone could ever have.”